With rates of colorectal cancer increasing among young adults, it is important to recognize the signs that may indicate colon cancer.
About 150,000 Americans are diagnosed each year with colorectal cancer, which includes colon and rectal cancer, according to the Colorectal Cancer Alliance. It is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide.
Dr. Waqqas Tai, a Brooklyn-based cancer specialist, said you should see a doctor if you have pencil-thin stools, rectal bleeding, anemia (especially in men), severe constipation or diarrhea, and/or unexplained weight loss. fever and night sweats.
“Please go to your primary care doctor and get your routine colonoscopy,” Tai said on TikTok last month. “They are incredibly easy to do and they can save your life.”
The US Preventive Services Task Force recommends that adults 45 to 75 years of age be screened for colorectal cancer. People outside this range may need to be screened if they have risk factors such as a family history of colorectal cancer, inflammatory bowel disease or troubling symptoms.
Pencil thin stools
The thin lining could mean a tumor is in your colon, Tai explained.
Dr. Michael Cecchini, co-director of the colorectal program at the Gastrointestinal Cancer Center and medical oncologist at the Yale Cancer Center, recently told HuffPost that tight stools tend to occur when tumors are near the end of the colon or lining its interior. .
Cecchini called this symptom “very disturbing.”
Blood in the toilet
“If there’s ever blood in the toilet, that’s never a good sign,” Tai said. “Go to work. You can’t assume it’s a hemorrhoid.”
According to the Cleveland Clinic, rectal bleeding is a symptom of conditions such as hemorrhoids, anal fissures, inflammatory bowel disease, Crohn’s disease, colon polyps and colorectal cancer.
“Blood in your stool can be a life-threatening emergency, and we want to treat it,” said Dr. Terry Simpson, a board-certified general surgeon based in California, told his 1 million TikTok followers in an August video. “It might be nothing, but it might be something, and it’s not worth betting your life on.”
Anemic
Anemia, when the number of red blood cells is low, can reveal that a tumor is bleeding into your digestive tract.
Anemia is present in 30% to 75% of colorectal cancer patients, according to a 2023 study.
“There is no healthy reason a man should be anemic,” Tai said. “This is the No. 1 diagnosis we look for. And for women, if you don’t have heavy periods, you also shouldn’t have low hemoglobin, and so you need a colonoscopy.”
Severe constipation and diarrhea
“If you’re alternating between severe constipation and severe diarrhea, while this could be a sign of some other gastrointestinal disorder, it’s a major reason to get a colonoscopy to make sure you don’t have colon cancer. Tai pointed out.
Unexplained weight loss, fever, night sweats
“We call these B symptoms,” Tai said. “If you wake up in the middle of the night sweating and your clothes are wet and you have to put a towel down, if you’re eating a ton and you’re still losing weight, if you’re shaking fevers randomly throughout the day, these are very common signs of cancer.”
#doctor #symptoms #colon #cancer
Image Source : nypost.com